If you’ve watched Driving with the Guru, you’ll know that I now have a black Nokia N82 to play with. If you haven’t watched Driving with the Guru, what’s wrong with you? Stop here and go watch it! (handy link). I’m not going to do a full-out review of the handset, cause I already reviewed the white/titanium version (they look the same to me) in five parts, covering the overall experience, build quality, imaging features, music playback, and a little Q&A with you guys. I also already gave you some first reactions, and at first, back in November, I was left feeling ‘meh’.
Fast forward to now, it’s the same phone, clad in a SEXY black outfit, and featuring an updated firmware. I have to say, this new firmware offers one of the best fresh-out-of-the-box experiences I’ve had with a Nokia handset in a long, long time. First, 2 of the initial complaints that I had have been fixed, when we learned that the microSD slot cover could be used as a makeshift stand for taking timed pictures. Also, either through the updated PC Suite, or the new N82 firmware, I’m able to sync my bookmarks through PC Suite. This is a key feature for me, and I’m glad to see it got some attention.
So what makes the out-of-box experience so great? Well, first of all, it’s all updated. When I pulled this thing out of the box, and did a hard reset, it already had the new N-Gage platform preinstalled – not just the demo version from earlier handsets. That’s HUGE, and a big plus for Nokia. Also, the new Share Online was preinstalled, so that I didn’t have to dig around to find the new update that shows the notifications on the front screen. One less hassle for new owners to have to go through to enjoy their handset.
This new firmware offers all the good stuff, such as photo geotagging, Flash Lite 3, Web Runtime support, the whole shebang. It’s nice to be able to pull the phone out of the box, sync up, and go, and not be completely helpless.
However, my buddy Devin over at TheNokiaGuide has recently put together 10 reasons that he thinks prevents the N82 from being labelled as the ‘perfect’ phone. What do you think? Is the N82 the best S60 handset on the market right now, or is it just another phone?
